Our People
The Creekridge Capital team is comprised of some of the industry's best and brightest. Many of our team members have built their careers in healthcare and technology fields, and we are passionate about what we do. We value innovation and creativity and reward our team members for dedication and hard work.
Meet some of the team:
Gregory Larson, President
Gregory Larson, President and Co-owner of Creekridge Capital, has over 25 years of broad-based experience in the leasing industry, including credit, structuring, marketing and management. Prior to founding Creekridge, Gregory served as Vice President of Sales for a middle market leasing company. He has also held positions as Vice President of syndications with the lease investment group of Northwestern National Life, Area Manager for GE Capital, and Division Credit Manager for ITT Industrial Credit.
Jeff Cowan, Executive Vice President
Jeff Cowan, Executive Vice President and Co-owner of Creekridge Capital, has over 20 years of experience in vendor equipment leasing and financial services. His background includes, relationship origination, management of sales and origination staff, marketing efforts, pricing and structuring of direct leases and vendor programs.
Prior to helping form Creekridge, he served as vice president, Investment Banking at Dougherty Funding, LLC ; Vice President, Healthcare Corporate Finance at FINOVA Capital; Regional Manager with the Vendor Medical Leasing Group at Wells Fargo Financial and Regional Manager for Business Credit Leasing.
Jim Teal, Chief Operating Officer
Jim Teal is responsible for all operations of the Company. Mr. Teal directs all aspects of the business including vendor program development and management, credit, funding, lease documentation and management, accounting, IT, and human resources. Prior to joining Creekridge in March 2007, he served as Executive Vice President of Finance & Operations and as a Director at Sunrise International Leasing Corporation. Over his 13 years at Sunrise, Mr. Teal was responsible for virtually all operations of the Company. Sunrise was a vendor leasing business that had a portfolio of over $450 million at its peak, providing vendor programs for companies such as Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems. Mr. Teal started his professional career at Arthur Andersen & Co. as a CPA.
Dave Gnade, Senior Vice President, Sales
Dave Gnade is responsible for all of the sales including vendor programs development, management of the sales team and overall sales volume. Prior to joining Creekridge Capital in 2006, he served as Senior Vice President of Wells Fargo Financial Leasing, Inc. Over his 19 year career at Wells Fargo, Mr. Gnade was in charge of the sales teams in the Healthcare and Office Automation segments that built a portfolio in excess of $1 billion dollars.
Mike Jones, Senior Vice President, Sales Vendor Program Management
Mike Jones joined the Creekridge Capital team in May 2010 and is responsible for aspects of vendor program development, management and growth. In this role he manages a team of Inside Sales Managers and Vendor Program Managers focused on the development and day to day management of all vendor finance programs. Mr. Jones has over 20 years of experience in the leasing industry and prior to joining the Creekridge team, he served as Vice President of the Healthcare Division of PNC Equipment Finance, formally National City Commercial Capital. In that role he was responsible for all the aspects of vendor finance programs within the Healthcare Market. During his 9 year career with PNC/National City he also served as Vice President and General Manager of their Retail Petroleum Division. Prior to National City, Mr. Jones held various sales and executive positions within Boulder Capital Group and Sunrise Leasing. He began his career as an accountant with Data Communications division of Harris Corporation.
Jody Ainley, Senior Vice President, Contract Administration
Jody Ainley joined the Creekridge Capital team in 2003 as a Vendor Program Manager and shortly thereafter was promoted to Vice President of Contract Administration. She is now Senior Vice President, Contract Administration. In her position, Jody is responsible for creating a new vendor program process for each individual partner tailered to fit their specific needs as well as their continued servicing and account management. In addition, Jody is responsible for the management of the operations staff, assuring that all documentation and funding packages are prepared and executed in a complete, accurate and timely manner to achieve full audit and internal review compliance and customer satisfaction.
Jody has more than 25 years of experience in the leasing industry with companies such as Security Pacific Leasing, Cargill Leasing, Firstar Equipment Finance and Farm Credit Leasing.
Jill Copeland, Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management and Banking
Jill Copeland began working with Creekridge Capital as a consultant in the company's accounting department. She officially joined the team as its Senior Vice President of Finance in February 2003 and is responsible for the reporting and integrity of Creekridge Capital's financial results, as well as debt management. Jill has organized a superior support team in the areas of portfolio administration, accounting and management reporting. Jill has 35 years of experience in accounting and finance, 10 of which have been focused solely on leasing. Her experience includes positions at Cargill, Control Data, Schulz & Burgess and the State of Minnesota.